


Riddle of the Sand People

by lordhadrian



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars the Old Republic - Fandom, original character - Fandom, swtor - Fandom
Genre: Corruption, Fort Tusken, Gen, Jedi, Jedi Code, Jedi Temple, Jedi Training, Original Character(s), References to the Jedi Council, Sand People, Tatooine, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:17:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7040488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordhadrian/pseuds/lordhadrian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fernopatrix of the Jedi must go to Tatooine to investigate a missing group of scientists, who have uncovered the greatest and most shocking secret on the planet.</p><p>Fern is an OC of 0biwanken0bie of Deviantart, and this is my story for the character.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riddle of the Sand People

Fern: Riddle of the Sand People

 

In a Thousand Years, Tatooine was Saved

A Thousand Years ago, Tatooine was Destroyed 

~ The Riddle of the Sand People 

The Dawn broke through Fern's meditation chamber as she breathed slowly, ready for a new day. Indeed, it was a new day for the Twi'lek. Her senses elevated her awareness as the warm sun glowed upon her face. Fern got up, half dressed, and slowly sauntered to the window and watched the cars and trucks of the sky lanes starting their daily routine. The orange glow of day baked upon her smooth blue skin "Another day" she smiled. She had felt a prickling of excitement each day, and hoped this one would lead to new possibilities. 

And possibilities opened up, indeed. She was paged by one of the Jedi Council, Master Syo Bakarn. Fern freshened up in the shower, glowing with blue purity as she dried off with a soft towel. Dressed in her modest robes, she made her way to the Council chambers. 

She bowed before the Council. Bakarn was there, as well as Satele Shan. Master Bakarn nodded and addressed her on her next mission as the others observed. "We have discovered an anomaly on Planet Tatooine, and cannot fully explain it. Three days ago, a team of archeologists uncovered an ancient Jedi ruin in the deep desert. It was not an official Jedi facility, but a commune created from a Jedi exile. They reported their findings to us. The team vanished and all communications have been silenced except for a signal that we cannot interpret. Your skills may help us in understanding what has happened, and discover what has become of the archeologists." 

Fern's imagination went into overdrive. Her senses became alert to the details of the mission, and she mentally prepared herself for this new mystery. "Do we have any records of this Temple in our archives?" She asked.

Another Master Jedi answered, Master Kiwiiks "We have very little knowledge of what this Temple was doing on Tatooine, and believe it may have been established by a rogue, 'Grey' Jedi. His name was Master Orus Peth. He left the order over a dispute with the Council of that era, and attempted to start up his own Jedi School away from Coruscant. The deep desert of Tatooine had swallowed up all traces of him and his rogue school." 

"You will be the first true Jedi to set foot in this ruin, a ruin that may be fraught with many dangers, a place hidden in the sands of time for thousands of years, Jedi Fernopatrix." Master Shan warned. 

"I understand" She replied humbly. 

"Find the archeologists, decipher the signal being emitted from the rogue Temple, and return safe. May the Force be with you." Bakarn waved her to the door. Fern bowed and made her way to her room to prepare for the journey. 

A knock came at the door. Fern did not have time to go about the Temple, and was visited by her friend, Kesarah. 

"Were you actually thinking of going somewhere and NOT saying bye?" Kesa gave a wry smile.

Fern smiled and bounced over to hug her at the door "Nothing short of a mission from the Council itself!" 

"A mission? Where?" 

"Some dusty old place on Tatooine. I mean, it's important. I need to find some missing people, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to go there." 

"Well, let me know when you get back. I hope it's a success!" 

"Yeah...." 

Kesa's eyes lit up "Oh!! You better say hi to Nadia before you go. She was grumpy on the way to her meditation studies with the other padawans." 

"Well, I should only be gone for a few days. Nadia would not miss me. She's had to do other duties around the Temple, I didn't want to interrupt her routine." 

"No. Believe me, she wants you to interrupt the routine." Kesa gave a small chuckle. 

Fern hugged Kesa and made her way through the grand halls of the Temple. "Master!!" A young voice called out. 

Fern smiled and turned to greet her padawan, Nadia Grell. "Somehow, I knew I would not need to search you out. You are looking well, Nadia." 

"But I'm NOT well!" Nadia insisted with a pained look "I'm so utterly bored with meditation in the garden with the others. And here you are, going off on adventure!" 

"It's not an adventure, Nadia. I must take great care to find some missing Archeologists on Tatooine. But I'll only be gone for a couple days. I'll be back before you know it." 

"But Master, I can be of help! Plus.....How else will I learn about life outside the Temple if-" 

"-If you don't experience it? Nadia, your studies here are also important. Besides, I'm going to a little world in the Outer Rim. It will be boring out there, and you will get bored in the desert. Go on now. I will return soon." Fern bowed to Nadia. The Padawan pouted for a moment, but then bowed to her Master. Fern moved swiftly to her small Defender class Jedi Corvette. A droid rolled down the entrance of the ship to greet her. 

"Why, hello there!" She chirped happily "T7-01, my name is Fernopatrix but you can call me Fern." 

T7 beeped in a positive tone, following behind her, even whistling while she walked. Fern thought it was adorable that the droid almost seemed to develop a crush on her in an instant. Together, they loaded up on their ship and launched from the Temple. The sun was still coming up, and Coruscant looked alive with colors and activities. 

"The city shines, don't you agree, T7?" She smiled and accelerated upward. T7 beeped with a spark. The droid happily looked around at the capital, marveling at its span, glistening in the morning bright. Fern reached the edges of orbit, and aimed for Tatooine. "Making the jump in 3....2...1...." Her ship fired off with slingshot speed into the hyperspace void, funneling through bright colors and cloudy space. She relaxed for a few minutes, meditating on her mission and the potential dangers. She started to get an uneasy feeling.

T7 started beeping questions at her. She smiled, but was still uneasy "I'm okay, T7. I just sense that there may be hazards on the journey ahead....and I have the feeling there is mischief surrounding us as we approach Tatooine. We must be on our guard." 

T7 went on to do a diagnostics check of the ship while in hyperspace, and started whistling out puzzled noises. "What's wrong?" The droid beeped at Fern with an alarmed appraisal of something going on in the ship. She raised an eyebrow, then went to one of the terminals near the engine room. She opened it to find....Nadia. The Padawan stowed away in the lower deck of the ship. Fern almost smiled at her student's precocious determination, but covered it with a stern face. 

"Nadia! I told you to stay at the Temple and focus on your training!" 

"But I've read there are desert raiders and Hutts on Tatooine! You need my help!" 

"The only help I need is making sure you don't become a handful!" 

"Oh, but Master! How can I prove I am worthy of being a knight if I don't help?" Nadia tried to use reason. Fern went into thought and looked at her "You stay on the ship and guard it. Mos Eisley is not a port for unwary travelers, and I need someone to look after the ship." 

"Can't the droid look after it?" 

"Nadia....." 

"Okay, okay." Nadia relented, but was happy to get at least this far. Fern went back to the cockpit, whispering to herself about mischief surrounding her. But she did give a small smile, admiring Nadia's initiative, though she would give an appropriate punishment later. 

Fern's craft soon reached the desert planet, deftly exiting hyperspace and slowing down as it entered the atmosphere. She landed in Mos Eisley as inconspicuously as possible, and with Nadia staying on board she went about passing herself off as another stranger passing through. Heavily cloaked, she used her stealth to blend in with the crowd as night fell on the city. She bought a speeder bike from a shady looking toydarian. T7 whined suspiciously, but she checked over the vehicle before paying. 

"No worries, T7. The bike is old and a bit rusty, but it has power and looks to be in decent shape. We only need it long enough to get to Archeological site in the morning." She smiled as the droid whistled with approval, but looked around, and felt like she was being watched. She took T7 to a small shelter on the edge of the city, quietly renting the small cubicle for the night. She meditated to save energy, but stayed aware of her surroundings through the night.

Her night was peaceful for a while, but a presence crept up upon her. In her deep meditation, she could sense the scuffling in the dirt outside her tiny habitat. She burst from the habitat to see who or what was trying to spy on her. She saw footprints in the sand near her dwelling. T7 gave a panicked beeping, but she calmed the droid down. 

"It's ok, T7. Whoever was here is gone now. Probably just.....hooligans." She sensed many beings shuffling around in the streets, some Jawas shouting in the distance. A couple of cloaked figures in gas masks staring in her direction from across the dusty lane. The figures were next to a worn down shelter. While she did not sense any immediate hostility, she could tell there was somebody following her. She could tell her presence here was causing complications.

She rested until the first sun crept along the horizon. "Let's get an early start, T7" She smiled and looked around. Mos Eisley's morning shift had begun. The bustling of traders, pirates and exiles filled the roads and alleys. Fern used the small, rusty shower of the rented dwelling to prep her smooth body with cool water, readying herself for the journey into the hot, sweaty desert. She did not bother drying off as she dressed. Her routine for the morning was more like a sacred ritual. Slow and deliberate as she dressed. She ate a brief amount of breakfast, just enough nourishment to give her a jump to her morning.

She cautiously looked around at the bustling crowds as she prepped her swoop bike and sped from the city with T7 tucked away in a small trunk space on the bike. As she made her way across the burning sea, the winds whipped around her. She cleared her mind, keeping one eye on the path ahead and one constantly searching and watching for any obstacles that would wish to complicate her day. It didn't take long for her to sense she was being followed. A gang of five swoopers were riding bikes in the far off distance, but she could tell they were following as she made her way past exotic rock formations and colorful dunes that radiated dusty colors.

T7 whistled and beeped a small warning, but she smiled, understanding the droid's concern. "If they want a confrontation, I'll just have to give them one!" she pulled around a large rock formation and parked her bike. She stood there as they swerved around to chase her. With aggression, they circled her a few times to give her a menacing snarl until they parked ten feet away and stared at her. 

"Can I help you strong, healthy boys?" she stared back at them with a smile. 

The thugs got a better look at her, just as she got a better look at them. They wore jackets with pirate insignias. Star Devils, she observed quietly. They were less observant, failing to notice how well trained she was, failing to notice her light saber in hand. All they could see were her more physical attributes. It was a rare man who could ever see her for what she truly was, but it served as an advantage in potentially hostile situations. 

"Our boss knows where you are going...." The lieutenant of the group warned "He wants you to get the message to stop now. Forget about going to any dig sites or anywhere else in the deep desert! We will show you a good time in Mos Eisley.....or maybe we can have a party right here!" he licked his lips. 

Undeterred, Fern sauntered over to him with a smile, then waved her hand to knock him off his feet! 

"I'm more party than you can stand, boys. I suggest you run home to your boss and let me go." 

The men were shocked to realize she was a Jedi, but the lieutenant became angry. "Woman or not, you're going to be spitting teeth!" 

They grabbed their guns and open fired, but Fern was fast with her light saber, and very nimble as she jumped around, deflecting their shots. Causing chaos as she jumped around, she managed to swing her saber, wrecking their guns and their bikes, wounding two of them with burn marks to the limbs. After a quick fight, the men cowered away from her. She finished off the bikes, scrapping them before jumping on her swooper. 

"It'll be night fall in a few hours. If you start walking, you just might make it back to Mos Eisley. Here...." She tossed them some credits "You can drink your sorrows away and dream of the girl who totally fracked you." T7 beeped happily as she started up her bike and zoomed off into the desert.

Defeated, the thugs start limping back to Mos Eisley. "No matter" The Lieutenant shook his head "If the Tusken Raiders don't get her....the Bhoot monks will....." 

Fern breathed easy as she zoomed at a fast speed, following the map on her scanner, and T7's sense of direction. T7 beeped and whistled a question. "I don't know who wants to stop us, but this archeological site must have stumbled onto something big!"   
No sooner had she spoke than a bullet ricocheted off her bike. T7 screamed as the Tusken snipers tried to pick her off!

"Raiders! Stay down, T7!" she swerved and zig zagged as the Sand People tried to kill her. A stray bullet nicked her in the shoulder but she used her piloting skills to navigate out of the shooting range. In moments, she was far away from the rogues, but had to stop to fix her wound. 

T7 whistled hopefully for her, but she was reassuring as she bandaged the wound "It stings a bit, but I will be okay. I just hope we don't have to go through THAT again!" she rested for a moment, checked her map, and prepped to finish the journey after what seemed like several hours of travel into the deep, scorching desert. 

As the afternoon blazed with two suns, she reached the site of the archeological excavation. Fort Tusken. She marveled at the ancient structure. With its cyclopean walls and eldritch temple towers, it looked to have been a palace many thousands of years ago. Some parts of the fort were more modern, only a few hundred years old. But whatever efforts modern colonists had made to live further into Tatooine had been halted by the enigmatic and wildly dangerous Sand People. The Tusken Raiders, so named because they had swarmed the fort and ended colonizing of Tatooine. True civilization had been limited to the cities. Smarter, Less civilized parties formed their criminal bases in hiding in various mountain fortresses and hidden bases on the planet, making the world an ideal spot for the scum of the galaxy.

She stopped outside and parked her bike in a secure shady spot. T7 unhooked itself from the bike to follow her as she refreshed herself with cool water from a small portable container. She stopped for a moment, hearing voices. Chanting voices with deep bass tones. She looked through a hole in one of the stone walls to see a parade of figures in crimson robes, chanting lowly in a dead language. 

"Curious...." she tilted her head. The chanting was not tonally unpleasant, but it sounded ominous. It was as if they prayed to a remorseful memory, or a God of some terrible design. A name frequented the chants in low, demonic bass singing. Zargon. "Well, no other way to do this...."

T7 beeped in a panic. Fern just sighed "True, I don't know who they are or where the archeologists went. This could be a trap T7, but the only way to move forward is to spring the trap." She walked right in, scuffling sand as the wind blew around her. She went to the main doors and announced her presence. One of the chanters, shrouded in deep red, opened the door and ushered her into the main structure, out of the howling winds and drifting sand. 

She tried talking to the robed figure, but he did not speak. All she could see of him was his mouth and nose from under the heavy hood. "I'm looking for the members of the expedition that came here.......can you help me at all?"

The Crimson monk led her along, and though she was wary of any danger that may be hidden in the ruins, she did not sense anything from the monks except complete serenity in their purpose. The Fort went deeper and deeper, and the structure became more ancient with different styles from different ages decorating the walls and floor. She could almost decipher the entire history of Tatooine by the different architectural eras within the vast fort. Some furniture and decayed art was present, but neglected, and would almost certainly be worth a fortune to treasure hunters if they could get this deep into the desert past all the dangers. 

She was led to a pit in a large underground chamber. She saw several people in the pit. Some were wounded, and some were worn down with ragged clothes. "Are you part of the archeologist team at this site!?" She moved to the edge of the pit. She saw the pit was 15 feet deep in the dig site, with a strange hole in the center of the pit. Seven people were in it, and they began to panic when she asked.

"IT'S A TRAP!!" One of them shouted. 

The monks suddenly swarm Fern and try to grab her arms. Their human features gave way to a changeling style, and became bleak and monstrous, with sharp teeth and hissing shrieks that replaced the calm tones of their chanting. What manner of monked creatures they were, she did not have time to define. She was too busy encountering their hidden hostility. She pushed several away, and is also helped by T7, who zapped a couple of the monks. The robed monks, who had looked human until this point, were fully transformed, their skin turning blue and fangs grew from their mouths. Fern watched as the facade fell away to reveal that they were horrid humanoids. 

"Please!" Fern tried to reason with them "I just want to make sure the Archeologists are safe! I don't want to hurt you..." Fern had done her best to not use her light saber, which she wanted to use only as a last resort. The monster monks pushed and tried to get her into the pit. One of them pulls out a gaffi stick and tries to attack her, but she deflects with her saber. T7 was grabbed and tossed unceremoniously into the pit, shouting loud beeps and whistles as hit the dirt floor roughly. 

Fern held her own, slicing up a couple of the Monk monsters. After a few tense moments, there was a roar. An unholy noise that came from the hole in the pit. And that's when the monks slowly backed away.... 

"Why are they backing away?" Fern asked out loud. 

One of the prisoners shook with terror "Zargon is hungry again. They feed us to the beast in the portal!" he muttered. 

"Portal? You mean the whole in the ground?" Fern looked at the hole cautiously. Monstrous growls came from within. 

The man, dressed in ragged research clothes, looked at her with panic "We uncovered more than just a hole while digging. The portal leads somewhere, and two of our crew were already taken-" 

A giant tentacle grabbed him from the hole and started pulling him in. Fern jumped down and sliced into the greasy appendage with her light saber! The beast roared in pain and tried to grab at her, but she cut at it with her burning blade. The Tentacle finally withdrew back into the hole. 

"You saved me!" The young man gasped as she pulled him from the hole. The Monster monks shrieked at her defiance of their ancient God beast. Fern looked around and called for T7. The droid was dented up a bit, a few busted bits, but her little companion warbled an equal defiance back at the monks.

"I'm Professor Pepin Martel, assistant to the director....he was taken by the tentacles." 

"You're a bit young to be a Professor" Fern raised an eyebrow "I expected University scholars to be a bit more....wizened." 

Pepin blushed "Well...I got an early start in life. I've been working with the University since I was 14." 

Fern blinked at the man. His blushing was adorable, but they were still in danger, and the cuteness of his youth was set aside for more pressing matters. 

"What happened here?" 

"We came to the Fort as part of an archeological mission, mostly to study Fort Tusken's multi-tiered constructions and architectural wonders. Tusken is the oldest known structure on Tatooine, maybe one of the great wonders of the galaxy! We wanted to explore its evolution, its history." 

"Looks like you found a lot more!" Fern stated. 

"The Monks welcomed us in, but they are the guardians of a vast secret that could destroy everything on Tatooine!" 

"You say that like it's a bad thing" She raised the eyebrow again "But go on." 

Pepin stared at her for a second from the snark, but accepted her joke as reasonable. Tatooine's destruction would be no loss to the galaxy at large. "As much as this planet is a wasteland that harbors pirates and criminals, it has a history, and all history is valuable. The shards of plates and glasses we dig up are worth more than credits could calculate. The greatest discovery, however....is through that portal. I suspect we would not live long enough to record what is there." 

"So, our answers will be found on the other side!" 

Fern strolled to the edge of the portal. Pepin was in a trance for a moment as she walked. He had spent so many years with his nose in books and studies, his exuberant but locked up youthful passions wanted to flood free from him as he saw her alluring pose. 

Pepin blushed even more, his heart racing even faster than the terror of his situation. Fern's gorgeous form and long legs had captivated him for a second, leaving him speechless. 

"T7, open a channel to Nadia." Fern bent over to converse with the droid, as it sent out a signal to her padawan. 

"Master!" Nadia smiled, hoping for news of some kind. Meditating on the ship was starting to get unproductive. "Do you need my assistance?" 

"Something dire is happening at the Fort, but I want you to be prepared to move on my signal. If I do not contact you in the next hour, I want you to follow T7's signal and rescue the scientists. They are held prisoner, but I want you to wait an hour...." 

The signal started to break up, fuzzed out by some of the droid's injuries. Fern fiddled with T7, grunting a little as she tried to boost the signal. 

Again, Pepin was transfixed, observing every curve and every pose that his young heart dared him to follow. For a Jedi, she flowed freely in her clothes, her body comfortable in its near exposures to his thirsty eyes. For a warrior, she was at ease as a woman, and Pepin felt almost ashamed that his respect for the mystical fighter started to give way to more physical notions of respect. Her bending and twisting around the suddenly phallic droid gave him a heated imagination that he shut off the moment her gentle sensuous eyes turned to him. 

"Pepin, I am going through your hole. Watch my droid. He will protect you from the beast below!" Pepin stared for a moment, but blinked while watching her soft lips speak to him. 

"Master Jedi, I....I cannot ask you to risk your life! Maybe we should flee together...with everyone, I mean." 

Fern put his mind at ease with a hand to his face. But her soft touch did not slow his racing heart and young energy. Energy he suddenly wished to share with so beautiful an Angel of mercy and sin. "I must discover what the nature of this danger is, and must try to rescue any others who have been taken through the hole. You must be brave, stay solid and ready for if I can return. If I am not back in an hour, go with T7 when my ship arrives and starts blasting the fort apart."

She got up and walked to the portal, preparing her slender form to jump. In a second, she was gone, with saber lit up to face the dangers. Pepin watched in awe. 

Fernopatrix felt the portal was a mystical tunnel, devoid of color but full of stars. She was not falling, but floated towards a new entrance. Physics, time and gravity had no function in the tunnel. Sometimes she walked, sometimes she let something pull her to the other side. It felt like water and air simultaneously, though she could breathe normally, but there was a thick sensation around her..... 

She entered the other side, which looked like the same portal she came from. She was in Fort Tusken, but the entire demeanor of the building felt modern and bright. Not the decayed, crumbling structure she had entered. She marveled at the beauty of the building for only a second. The great tentacled beast slithered nearby. Its limbs were gelatinous and squibbling with shiny mucus. Its bulbous head pierced the shadows with a single, menacing eye and a ceratopian horn in its forehead. 

Zargon, the beast itself, greeted her with a contemptuous roar. 

But it did not attack her. It merely slithered about near the portal. 

"Ah, welcome!!" a man's voice floated to her from above. Fern looked up to see a man in Jedi robes greeting her from a balcony above the portal pit. "I never thought I would see again a fellow mystic of the old Order.....and such a lovely flower of the Force!" 

"I am Fernopatrix of the Jedi" She looked up at him politely but firm in her announcement. 

"Of course you are!" The man grinned happily "I knew the Jedi had finally found me by the scorched wounds on the great Zargon!" 

"That beast....that horrible thing is Zargon?" Fern twisted her expression with revulsion. 

"The great GOD Zargon, to be exact. And forgive me for being rude. I did not properly introduce myself. I am Orus Peth, High Priest of the Kingdom of Zargon!" 

"Master Peth?" 

"I am a Jedi no longer!" Peth corrected her "For I have seen the true power of the Force. Zargon is greater than the light AND the dark. Zargon has feasted on many souls in his ten thousand years....but you will soon witness a feast like none other, when Zargon destroys the world of Tatooine with my new device....the reality bomb!!" 

"Whoa, whoa whoa. Excuse me?" All of it was overwhelming, and Fern had to slow down the exposition of Orus Peth's mad scheme. For whatever had happened to Peth had surely driven him to madness. "Did I miss something?" 

Orus Peth held out his hand and made Fern levitate gently up to the balcony. "Fear not" he smiled his intense maddening smile "Zargon will not harm you, for you are of the Jedi. But soon....you shall become his bride!" 

Fern blinked again "Wait, WHAT?? Can you slow down and start over?" 

They walked for a short distance as Orus explained "Zargon and his chosen people are planning to travel through the portal and conquer the other side, but first we must send through a device called the reality bomb. Once there, Zargon's followers will swarm the planet and create a new paradise on Tatooine. The Monks will plant the bomb, which will remove the souls of every living being on the planet! Zargon will enter the portal and then feed off the wandering souls. He can eat flesh, just as he did with several of those meddling scientists, but it's so much easier to drink the souls from the bodies." 

"Why are you helping this Monster!?" Fern demanded. 

"I'm doing it to save Zargon, and all of Tatooine!" Orus opened a door to the outside of the Fort "Behold!!" Fern marveled at what she saw. She was clearly in Fort Tusken, but the architecture was full of color. And there was no desert, but lush green woods and plains. But among the beauty of the landscape were the red hooded monks. The Bhoots. Creatures that were half human and half beast themselves. The monks chanted glory to Zargon, and Orus Peth laughed in victory. 

"We cannot let the scientists through. If they come through the portal of Fort Tusken, they will destroy Tatooine! I intend to help save the planet from becoming a desert wasteland!" 

"But Tatooine is already a desert wasteland!" Fern argued. 

"THIS IS TATOOINE!!" Orus shouted in triumph! "The portal was part of a sacred gateway into Tatooine's past! The world was never meant to be a desert wasteland, and the Bhoot were never meant to be reduced to wandering savages! Zargon will conquer Tatooine and make it a paradise again!" 

Fern's jaw dropped "The Sand People! Tusken Raiders! They are the descendants of the Bhoot!" 

"They are the lost and the damned!" Peth answered quietly "They cannot be saved, nor shall the wretched scum of the cities be saved. All will be destroyed by the Bomb, and all shall be consumed by the ever living Zargon!" 

"Think of what you are doing!" Fern tried to reason with him "These people in the future....you cannot become their judge! If something happened in the past of Tatooine, then there is nothing we can do to change that. Tatooine's destiny has come to pass-" 

"-NO!" Perth was starting to rage his new found religion "We must take back the future! You should understand! You are a peacekeeper!" 

"I do not know what has destroyed your mind, Master Orus Perth, but you have fallen away from the teachings of the Order. This is blasphemy, horror and madness! You have discovered a door through time, but that does not give you the right to change the lives of future people!" 

"YOU ARE LOST, CHILD!" Master Perth brought to bear his light saber with lightning speed, but Fern was just as fast! They clashed, surrounded by the devil monks of a long dead civilization. Fern and Orus fought through the halls and past balconies where Fern saw great sights of an advanced world. Cities of monumental size and statues of what looked to be great Bhoot leaders and heroes. She had seen such similar statues on Korriban, dedicated to Sith Lords. She surmised that Orus discovered the Portal by accident, and fell to insanity from the sights of Tatooine's past.....and the near indomitable will of the God beast Zargon. 

The Beast watched them fight with great interest, though it was a mere animal in its logic. 

"It is a shame. You would have made a lovely bride to Zargon...." Orus claimed as they fought, though Fern was ready to puke at such a thought. 

"I'm not marrying a giant one eyed stomach!" She continued to counter his attacks and let her nimble skills push him back. 

In the corner of her eye, she saw several Bhoot followers carrying a device that certainly looked like the bomb. They were heading for the portal. Orus saw her looking and doubled his attacks. 

"The bomb is ready! You cannot stop Zargon's plans!" he shouted as they jumped around. 

Fern ran towards the portal to stop the Bhoots, but a crowd of them surged to block her. 

"You cannot kill them all, Jedi" Orus smiled and walked calmly over to her "Or would you murder them all? It would be a crime against the future!" 

"Not as big of a crime as genocide, Orus!" Fern growled at him "You would murder an entire generation!" 

"Is it murder if they haven't even been born yet!?" he grinned. 

He struck at her again with his saber, but Fern held him off and danced around him. He was right about one thing, however. She would have to kill the Bhoots in cold blood to stop the bomb, and the decision weighed heavily upon her. 

But destiny stepped in to even the odds with an explosion that came through the portal. Something was rocking about in present day Tatooine. 

"Master! Are you reading me?" A voice called out. "I'm blasting my way into the Fort!" Nadia called out, but the signal was very faint as it reached Fern. 

"NADIA! Destroy the fort! Destroy the Portal! NOW!!" 

"I won't leave you behind Master!" Nadia's attack on the Fort with the corvette must have been quite intense. Many of the Bhoot guarding the door in the future were retreating through it back to the past. 

"Nadia! Save the scientists! Get them back to Coruscant!" 

"STOP HER!!" Orus was enraged at the attack that caused the Bhoot to flee back. Zargon roared at the confusion and chaos. The beast, angry with his cowardly followers, lashed out his tentacles at them. Some of the fleeing Bhoot monks were crushed. In its animal rage, Zargon smashed a limb upon the bomb, activating it. Energy started to pulse from it, vibrations made it shake and buzz violently. 

"Master! I have cleared a path to the portal!" Nadia called out desperately. 

Fern jumped away from Orus and landed next to the portal. She waved her hand, knocking away any remaining Monks. "I tried to be reasonable, Master Peth, but I see you just don't care. The Bhoots would come to infiltrate, to invade, and to replace us. For all your advances in civilization you are Monsters! That is the role you seem determined to play, so it seems I must play mine. The Woman that stops the Monsters! I see now that THIS bomb is what destroys your world, but the Bhoots will survive, but you will serve out your fates as punishment of your arrogance. The future is protected. I am Fernopatrix of the Jedi Order....."

Fern gracefully jumped through as Zargon roared again. She disappeared within the portal. 

The Bomb exploded. Fern felt the blast wave push her even faster back to the future, to the other side. So great was the bomb it shattered and destroyed the portal. Fern landed back in the old pit, in the old Fort. The ground shook for a second but was still. The hole was plugged up, never to be a threat again. 

"Master! You made it!!" Nadia called from the ship. The corvette hovered from a hole above, a blast hole that burned its way through the Fort. "I have the scientists on board! I think I scared off all the monks." 

"Good work, Nadia." Fern brushed herself off and smiled "Your insubordination was well timed." 

"Don't worry, Master. I won't let it go to my head!" She grinned as Fern jumped up and out of the building to board the ship. A blast of hot air from the old Tatooine desert wind hit Fern, but she was not fazed. She looked around the vast, empty dunes of the desert wasteland. Such a shame that a beautiful world was gone. Beauty controlled by a Monster. But she was at peace with her decision. Tatooine was not an easy place but it was far better than what it might have become. She dwelt on that as she walked to the cockpit and greeted Nadia and Pepin. 

Young, handsome Pepin smiled at her, and Fern realized that Tatooine had its own beauty in the modern day. A beauty worth fighting for.


End file.
